Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Dec 2, 2009, 3:08 pm
Biologists do things differently – sometimes very differently – from most people.  Case in point is that most of the “nuts” that we cook with are actually fruits.  To a biologist, a nut is d...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Nov 23, 2009, 5:54 am
In addition to my day job, my duties as a wife and mother and holiday preparations, I’ve been busy writing the text for the second volume of The Silk Road Gourmet.  The volume covers what I call th...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Nov 13, 2009, 7:12 am
A number of readers have commented to me that they are having a hard time finding The Silk Road Gourmet in their countries.  This spurred me to do some research to find sources for people to buy the ...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Nov 8, 2009, 11:58 am
Autumn Means Pickles! Cucumbers, capers, ginger, garlic, peppers, beans, asparagus, onions:  Any vegetable out there – and quite a few fruits as well make excellent pickles.  All along the Silk R...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Nov 1, 2009, 11:29 am
Every chef and serious home cook knows that good knife skills are important for the safe and proper preparation of food. Knife skills teach us how to properly julienne or paysanne vegetables or other...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Oct 25, 2009, 2:46 pm
One of the food-related trends in modern society is that of nutraceuticals, that is, people seeking foods that will enhance some physical characteristic or another that they value.  From foods to bo...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Oct 18, 2009, 12:59 pm
Asians love to stuff things.  They love to stuff little things into bigger things, or roll leaves, dough or meat with all manner of minced vegetables, cheese and meat.  From Georgian hinkali to Phil...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Oct 7, 2009, 7:35 am
No, not another promised exploration of the cuisines of the Levant States or of Saudi Arabia.  This essay is about the root vegetables eaten along the Silk Road.  That is onions, shallot, leek, garl...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Oct 1, 2009, 7:29 am
In sorting through old photos, I found this old postcard from Mongolia that I wanted to share. Despite its faded colors and scanned, fiber-paper texture its and interesting shot. Its from a time pri...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Sep 20, 2009, 9:10 pm
Last week I had the honor and the pleasure of attending a wine tasting at the Georgian Embassy in Washington, DC.  The point of the tasting was of course to learn about and enjoy the wide variety of ...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Sep 13, 2009, 1:37 pm
In living the research for The Silk Road Gourmet, I found that modern, western cookery imposed something of an artificial uniformity on the art of the kitchen by demanding that all food adhere rigorou...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Sep 6, 2009, 10:04 pm
For years now, I have sat and gazed at this woman’s picture.  The gazing is periodic and usually takes place when I should be doing something else or when a deadline is approaching – a sort of pr...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Aug 30, 2009, 3:30 pm
The Wordle for The Silk Road Gourmet Year One is as follows The Blog's Year One Wordle Its a visual representation of the issues I’ve been blogging about for slightly more than a year. Fo...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Aug 24, 2009, 2:48 pm
As part of the celebration of the publication of The Silk Road Gourmet, my husband and I recently dined at Georgetown’s fabulous Silk Road Restaurant, Mie’N Yu. Already having received great revie...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Aug 19, 2009, 5:24 pm
This photo of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is posted in honor of Michelle Obama, who I am told, has had the cheek to wear shorts on a trip to Arizona’s Grand Canyon. Eleanor Roosevelt All I ca...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Aug 16, 2009, 8:04 pm
Schizandra berries In answer to a question recently posed to me by the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, this week’s offering on the blog is a primer on the food uses of Sc...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Aug 9, 2009, 1:11 pm
Thank you, baby . . . To celebrate the publication of the first volume of The Silk Road Gourmet, my husband took me to Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks show on Friday night. Van the Man Astral Weeks ha...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Aug 2, 2009, 3:08 pm
Ramadan Lantern The time of Ramadan is almost upon us once again.  Since so many of the land and maritime routes of the Silk Road ran through predominantly Muslim countries, and since Muslim traders...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Jul 29, 2009, 8:50 pm
I just wanted to take a moment to thank the Gaffer – Alexey Konoplev – for the beautiful photograph that graces the cover of the first volume of The Silk Road Gourmet.  For me, the photo ...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Jul 20, 2009, 4:27 pm
I’ve seen copies of  both the hardcover and softcover versions of  The Silk Road Gourmet Volume 1 available on Barnes and Noble Online and also at Amazon. Over the next few weeks the book wil...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Jul 10, 2009, 4:58 pm
I’ve just found out that I misunderstood when the first volume of The Silk Road Gourmet will be available.   In earlier posts I had stated that it should be available in June or July. It seems ...
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Laura K. posted an article on Silk Road Gourmet - Jul 5, 2009, 4:00 pm
Finding the ingredients for many of the recipes in the Silk Road Gourmet might pose a challenge to some who are not blessed with Indian, East Asian and Persian Markets near their homes. So, in order t...
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